June 7th 1984, Cessna O-2 Crash, Ft. Stewart GA and the Convention of States

While on Medevac duty that day at Wright Army Field, located at Ft. Stewart GA., my crew and I were called to respond to a downed aircraft incident.

It was just after lunch, we pilots and 1st up crew were lounging around the small day room waiting for the inevitable heat casualty call to come through. There was a joint training task force with elements from the 24 Infantry Division and the 507th Tactical Air Control Wing from Shaw Air Force Base S.C. going on all week and it was getting old. In the afternoon two or three times a day we would “bounce” go out to where the affected trooper lay and bring them to Winn Army Hospital with varying degrees of heat sicknesses.

There was a joint training task force with elements from the 24 Infantry Division and the 507th Tactical Air Control Wing from Shaw Air Force Base S.C. going on all week and it was getting old. In the afternoon two or three times a day we would “bounce”, and go out to where the affected trooper lay, and bring them back to Winn Army Hospital with varying degrees of heat sicknesses.

Right at about 14:00 the air siren went off on the control tower of Wright Field, this siren signified an aircraft accident somewhere on FT. Stewart .

We didn’t hesitate a single second and raced to our waiting Medevac UH-1V. Completely out of breath with lungs burning trying to bring air back in through a windpipe that would only go so big we scrambled aboard the primed and waiting aircraft. As we pulled the start trigger the blades started to spin as the turbine throated to life.

Once at flight idle our crew Chief and Medic who were standing by as fire guards outside the aircraft climbed in. I and my fellow pilot raced through the checklist so fast that it came close to downright mind reading.

I pulled up on the collective after I brought the engine RPM to full throttle, and came to a three foot hover as my cohort pilot started the radio clearances from the tower and Area control for the cantonment of Ft. Stewart. Cleared for departure from our current location, I moved the cyclic forward and started our takeoff run. In the meantime, I could hear the particulars coming from the control room of Medevac operations over our FM radio. It was an Air Force O-2 that went inverted and crashed into a heavily wooded area about 3 miles shy of Remagen training DZ (Drop Zone) to the west.

We flew straight to the area which wasn’t hard for us to tell, there were a number of other military aircraft up flying that day, and they circled around where we presumed the downed Air force O-2 was. As we got closer we could tell that was exactly what was going on. We flew over the crash site and circled looking for a clear landing area and we couldn’t find one. There were a number of helicopters that had already landed close to the site and there wasn’t any room for us. I was mad, I know they wanted to help but we couldn’t get in there, what was worse a number of them had shut down and the pilots were out of them and away from their radios. We couldn’t even call them to say “hey clear out of there!”

We made the decision to land as close to the sight as we possibly could, which was almost 2 Klicks (Kilometers) out from the crash site.

Once we got on the ground I gave the controls to my fellow pilot and he held it at flight idle as I and my crew chief grabbed our on board extractor box. This box was 250 LBS. full of metal cutting equipment and a hand pump jaws of life. My medic grabbed his kit, and off we ran at a full dead heat as fast as we could, we didn’t know if they were dead or alive all we knew was that we just had to get there.

As we were running me in the lead my crew chief on the other end of the box followed by our medic, my crew chief stumbled for a second. We kept running as fast as humanly possible but that jerk traveled through the box and caused me to lurch forward. I fell one hand holding the box the other out in front to break my fall and my left knee slamming on top of a rather large exposed root. It was like a three part pile hammer , my weight, the metal box, and the weight of the crew chief and all that momentum stopped by my knee on that root.

Needless to say the pain went from excruciating to numb in just a few seconds. It didn’t matter we recovered and ran at a full tilt the rest of the way. When we got to the site we ran up to the plane. There was very little ground run, almost none in fact. It looked like where the nose augured in, it stopped and then fell on its back. I looked up and was stunned to see half a dozen men sitting and standing just looking, looking at what was left. My mind for a second couldn’t comprehend why nobody moved, it was all very surreal.

I looked from their faces as we dropped the box and I saw on the ground the left arm of one of the pilots peeking out from under the wreckage. On the left sleeve of our flight suits is a small pocket and pen holder. His pocket zipper was open, and spilling out from it was his dog tag, a small bit of chain, and his wedding ring.

I could see out of my peripheral the heads shaking “no”, back and forth very slowly almost as if they were apologizing to these two occupants for not being able to do anything to save them. The two men were dead, we had to check, and reaching our hands through the wreckage looking for a pulse confirmed that the end event was quick, as one pilot lost his head and the other had his face sheered off by the upper control panel. Their last recorded words were “May-ugh! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We are going down Come on, Let GO! and then it was over.

As I climbed back out from under the crash one of the pilots who had been shaking his head simply said, “I watched it go down” One minute it was ok then it pitched awkward and rolled onto its back, I saw the tail come off and down it went”.

We were followed to the site pretty quickly by an aviation safety officer, and as we were going to pull the bodies out and cover them he yelled over to us “Don’t”. I stopped and looked to see who would yell that at us when I noticed his senior rank. He followed it up by a rather soft ” the accident investigation team will need to see this just the way it is”.

My biggest regret that day was in not disobeying him, it took the board many hours to get there, all the while that hot Georgia sun was not helping matters. If I had known they would take until almost 17:00 that day I think I would have.

You may have many reasons to become involved in the Convention of States project, I have many as well and two of them are named 1st lt. Craig Martelle and 1st lt. Kurt Schwindt. Those two men gave their lives to the defense of this country and to this day I wear a knee brace on that left knee ( it took me 30 years with the VA to get it, but that is a different story). Every day we allow our Constitution to be subverted, and every day we do not take action to call for a convention of States, we dishonor those men and others like them who gave their last full measure to protect our country, our liberty, and our freedom.

We in the military swore an oath to protect our Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic.

We have a legal, peaceful means to accomplish this goal, shame on us if we don’t get it done.

Volunteer at www.conventionofstates.com

Scott P. Williams

TN State Director

Convention of States

www.conventionofstates.com

Died that day:

1st lt. Craig Martelle

1st lt. Kurt Schwindt

Tactical Air Control Wing

Shaw Airforce Base, S.C.

Thank you to David Mason who provided some photos of Kurt Schwindt. David told me these were right after the Invasion of Grenada just a few months before the accident. (He actually got them to me a couple of years ago but it took me some time to get back to posting them.

Post navigation

Myself and my XO were in the OH-58C circling the crash site that day. The crew on the ground was also from our unit. I was the CO and XOs crewcheif and because they always flew single pilot I flew with them. We were the first to spot the wreckage and climbed to altitude to assume traffic control and make radio calls. The second crew landed to find the scene you described above. I had forgotten this day until seeing your article.

What a day that was, I was taking a pretty good guess as to the exact location, that was a long time ago. Since you were flying topside do you think If you “google Earth” Ft Stewart can you confirm where I have pegged the sight? Any other information you want to share would be neat to have as well.
What unit were you guys with? Who else was there …
Hey, I really appreciate you stopping by my little corner of the world….

No, the XO was on the map. I can’t say who was actually flying that day. My navigational skills those days were questionable. It was a long day. We were spooled up on our AO getting ready to go burn some fuel when the crew that had watched the O-2 go down made the radio call. The crash site was very close to us. it was just off the road in tall pines as I remember. I remember all of us commenting that night about the size of the clearing and the fact that none of those tall pines were struck by the aircraft as it crashed. I remember spotting the crash site and the XO missing me calling it out because he was busy making a radio call with the other crew which was trail to us. We flew by the site, climbed to altitude and the trail aircraft landed. After a minute the second crew confirmed that there were no survivors. The XO did not want to broadcast this information because the A-10s that the 0-2 had been working with were still circling and monitoring most of the frequencies we were except our unit internal. I remember the medevac showing up as well as a host of others. The members of the second crew spoke of talking to the medevac crew and now that I think back on it they might have mentioned the banged up knee. they spoke of not being able to move the bodies and being there for awhile waiting for the safety guys because they were the first ones on site. As I said before I had totally forgotten about this day until I read this article.

I was a Forward Air Controller with the 21st TASS at Shaw AFB. I knew Craig and Kurt pretty well. I have some photos of Kurt when he went to Grenada. Is anyone interested in seeing them. Kurt was single no kids. Craig was married. My email is davidmasonmd11capt@yahoo.com. They were both very good pilots. The plane just came apart on them. Very sad!

I was a US Army ATC (mos 93H) on duty the day that happened. As I recall the A/C pusher prop sheared one of the tail-booms and it pretty much went straight down leaving nothing of the A/C over 3′ above ground.

I was the flight medic on your crew that day. That was my first air disaster that I had responded to. There are some details of that day that are etched in my memory forever. I didn’t remember you falling, but we were running to the crash site and I was focused mainly on getting there and assessing the situation. The plane was inverted and I could only get to one of the pilots. You approached the other side of the aircraft and I remember you thought you felt a pulse when you checked his arm. The crew chief and I removed the seat so that I could get into the aircraft and check for a carotid pulse. I remember crawling into that tight space on top of the deceased pilot. I won’t describe the details of the next few minutes, but it was evident that he was also deceased. I remember standing in the hot sun the rest of the day waiting for the investigation team. My flight suit covered in the remains of those poor men and the overwhelming smell of the jet fuel. I went home that night and undressed on the front porch and threw that flight suit away. I went on to respond to many more accident and trauma situations after that day. This is what Memorial day is for me. I reflect back on the men and women I couldn’t save, those I knew who died in the service of their country in peace and war.

Hi Andrew, what a day that was. I appreciate your adding to the story, funny how somethings are clear as a bell for that day and some we don’t recollect at all. When I stumbled and fell I hit on my knee and half bounce and half pushed myself back up to continue running. Not sure we missed much of a step in all of that. Like you Memorial Day for me brings back the countless missions where we couldn’t help and to reflect on what they died for.

Do you remember the incident with m113, a misfire from a .50 cal and the 2 mechanics?

Thank you all so much for your efforts on 7 Jun 1984. My brother, Kurt, loved flying as much as anyone. I learned a lot from your posts and have shared some with Mom and Dad. I was thinking about Kurt today and found this site once again.
Peace to all services men and women!

I was the crew chief on that plane that day. I wished I could remember the tail number. I launched them out. Prior to taxi LT martell said he had left his flight gloves in another plane the day before, I told him I would return them to him when they returned. He never made it back. Still haunts me today. Wish there was something we would have seem n on that rear prop that day.

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